Manga like Alabaster

Black Jack

Also known as Black Jack.

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama

Among adult readers in Japan Black Jack is Osamu Tezuka’s most popular achievement, and perhaps the most close to the creator’s heart, as Tezuka considered entering the medical field—majoring in medicine in college—before devoting his life to comics. Black Jack is a genius surgeon who never acquired his license due to his clashes with the medical establishment. He is hired out by anyone willing to pay his exorbitant rates and is perceived as a heartless rogue because of his enigmatic nature and antisocial manner. But as readers will soon discover, that is not the whole story.



Note: Won the 1st Kodansha Manga Award in the Shounen category in 1977.

Tags: Male Protagonist , Medicine , Work , Episodic , Ghost , Shounen , War , Disability , Suicide , Drugs , Tragedy , Philosophy , Meta

MW

Also known as MW.

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Psychological , Thriller

Michio Yuki has it all: looks, intelligence, a pedigree as the scion of a famous Kabuki family, a promising career at a major bank, legions of female admirers. But underneath the sheen of perfection lurks a secret with the power to shake the world to its foundations.

During a boyhood excursion to one of the southern archipelagos near Okinawa, Yuki barely survived exposure to a poison gas stored at a foreign military facility. The leakage annihilated all of the island’s inhabitants but was promptly covered up by the authorities, leaving Yuki as an unacknowledged witness—one whose sense of right and wrong, however, the potent nerve agent managed to obliterate.

Now, fifteen years later, Yuki is a social climber of Balzacian proportions, infiltrating the worlds of finance and politics by day while brutally murdering children and women by night—perversely using his Kabuki-honed skills as a female impersonator to pass himself off as the women he’s killed. His drive, however, will not be satiated with a promotion here and a rape there. Michio Yuki has a far more ominous objective: obtaining MW, the ultimate weapon that spared his life but robbed him of all conscience.

There are only two men with any hope of stopping him: one, a brilliant public prosecutor who struggles to build a case against the psychopath; the other, a tormented Catholic priest, Iwao Garai, who shares Yuki’s past—and frequently his bed.



Tags: Seinen , Politics , Conspiracy , Crossdressing , Psychosexual , Crime , Urban , Torture , Primarily Adult Cast , Religion , Nudity , Boys' Love , LGBTQ+ Themes , Bisexual , Suicide , Tragedy , Espionage , Zoophilia , Age Gap

Apollo no Uta

Also known as Apollo's Song.

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Fantasy , Psychological

Apollo’s Song follows the tragic journey of Shogo, a young man whose abusive childhood has instilled in him a loathing for love so profound he finds himself compelled to acts of violence when he is witness to any act of intimacy or affection whether by human or beast. His hate is such that the gods intervene, cursing Shogo to experience love throughout the ages ultimately to have it ripped from his heart every time. From the Nazi atrocities of World War II to a dystopian future of human cloning, Shogo loses his heart, in so doing, healing the psychological scars of his childhood hatred.



Note: The Japanese version of this manga includes the one-shot "Garakuta no Uta", however the English release does not contain this story.

Tags: Tragedy , Dystopian , Rehabilitation , Augmented Reality , Male Protagonist , Shounen , Cosmic Horror , Suicide , Reincarnation

Barbara

Also known as Barbara.

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Mystery , Psychological , Romance , Supernatural

Wandering the packed tunnels of Shinjuku Station, famous author Yosuke Mikura makes a strange discovery: a ragged hippie who can quote French poetry. Her name is Barbara. He takes her home for a bath and a drink, and before long Barbara has made herself into Mikura’s shadow, saving him from egotistical delusions and jealous enemies. But just as Mikura is no saint, Barbara is no guardian angel, and Mikura grows obsessed with discovering her secrets, tangling with thugs, sadists, magical curses and mythical beings – all the while wondering whether he himself is still sane. Written in 1973 and 1974 and inspired by the classic opera “Tales of Hoffmann” by Jacques Offenbach, Barbara may be Tezuka’s most psychological and unsettling work, shattering the fine line between art and madness with masterful precision.



Tags: Seinen , Primarily Adult Cast , Writing , Memory Manipulation , Philosophy , Male Protagonist , Nudity , Witch , Meta , Suicide

Embalming: THE ANOTHER TALE OF FRANKENSTEIN

Status: Finished
Genres: Action , Drama , Horror , Romance

A story based on the concept of Frankenstein. The late scientist Victor Frankenstein's papers on the creation of a "frankenstein" are being put to use, and Fury Flatliner, motivated by revenge, sets out to kill them and their creator.

Tags: Shounen , Historical , Male Protagonist , Body Horror , Guns

Bukkira ni Yoroshiku!

Also known as Say Hello To Bookila.

Status: Finished
Genres: Comedy , Sci-Fi , Supernatural

Although an attractive girl, Toroko is a terrible actress. Despite the fact that she messes up her lines, ignores her superiors, and generally causes mayhem, Touzai Television continues to use her in many of their shows.

People begin to notice, and the tabloid reporter, Rokurou, intends to get to the bottom of this mystery. Little does he know that his investigation will turn up a strange relationship between the actress and a demon… or that he will soon be a part of that uneasy relationship himself.

Osamu Tezuka, the God of Manga, depicts an usual and unprecedented drama about demons and the supernatural. You don’t want to miss this one!



Note: Includes the three-part story Kibando (牙人).

Tags: Shounen , Monster Boy , Demons , Kemonomimi , Acting